Raiders Thursday practice forced to be indoor walk-thru as smoke from Northern California wildfires worsens

Thursday, the Raiders canceled practice media availability for practice. The air quality has gotten extremely bad recently due to the wildfires raging across Northern California. Last Sunday the air quality at game time was around 170 which is deemed “unhealthy” by Air Quality Index standards, but not to the level that would keep the game from going forward on schedule.

Once it reached 200, the air quality jumps from “Unhealthy” to “Very unhealthy” which is the level at which the game would not be played. As of 11am the air quality was at 192. That was enough to have the practice moved to a walk-thru inside to limit the amount of inhalation of the air by the players.

It’s not ideal, but the Raiders certainly understand there are those who are far more directly and often tragically affected by this than a football team having to practice indoors.

“First of all, our hearts go out to all the people that have lost lives and property and certainly all the first responders. I think number one, all those people above everybody,” said Raiders offensive coordinator, Greg Olson.

“For us, we’re missing a practice, missing the ability to go outside, but for others, it’s changing their lives. It’s very unfortunate, but again you put things in perspective; nobody on this team has lost lives or property, so we’re fortunate in that regard. But we always say, you’ve got to adjust and we’ll adjust today and get our walk-thru done indoors and we’ll make the most of it.”

Everyone wants the air quality to improve because when it does, it signals the fires have dissipated some. Though being able to practice outside is an afterthought in such devastation, it would be a obvious byproduct.

The Raiders have one more practice scheduled Friday as they prepare to head to Arizona to face the Cardinals on Sunday.

If you’d like to help out with wildfire relief here’s how.